Well, it's been a long time. But, I have excuses; fairly major excuses. My husband and I decided to upgrade homes, so we closed on a new house on April 9th and moved in that evening (in the middle of a late season snowstorm, I might add)!! With said new house came a brand new sewing studio and small office for me to work from! Between getting everything moved, getting the old house on the market, finishing up my graduate school spring semester (still have my 4.0!), finishing a chicken coop complete with baby chicks (who are now looking more and more like chickens), and full time employment, sewing time has been scarce, but I FINALLY got around to doing some work this afternoon.
I am still working on the same project I started back in February or March, and that is the crimson velvet smoking jacket I am making for Matt for Durango Heritage Days this coming fall. I've gotten it mostly put together and have completed all of the machine sewing I think I can do with it, so now all that remains is the tedious hand tasks.
I know that this image isn't my usual quality, but the camera is still packed somewhere and I don't particularly want to hunt it down and dig it out. The lining is in, although it is not attached to the fabric itself in some places as you can see on the front seam of this photo.
I learned a few things bungling through this project:
1. Velvet is soft so you would think it would be fun fun fun to work with! Wrong. I had figured that by choosing a silk velvet I would be in for a wonderland of gloriously soft fabric just begging me to pet it. Velvet, at least the silk variety, is slinky and slippery. Even cutting the fabric in a straight line was a chore!
2. If you use silk velvet- BACK THE FABRIC WITH SOMETHING SOLID! Interfacing, wool, cotton, anything that holds its shape! The stuff was all over the place while I was trying to sew it.
3. Be careful of the grain of the velvet when you cut the fabric. I thought I had this all figured out before I cut my fabric, and although it sounds like an obvious thing to triple check, I didn't get it quite right. The flow of the velvet on this particular coat goes 'down' on one side, and 'up' on the other. You don't really notice it by the way the light plays off of it, but if you 'pet' the coat, you can tell the difference. Not perfect, but still workable.
4. Don't leave pins in velvet, it crushes the plush part of the fabric and no amount of rubbing fixes that.
Otherwise, it's been an OK project. There's still a bunch to go, and I have my doubts about whether or not I will be able to get the velvet to sit as nicely as I would like, but only time (and patience!!!) will tell.
Once I get this completed, I am contemplating a few projects for me :) The first project is the accompaniment to this jacket- a Victorian nightgown and dressing gown. I found a Vintage Closet pattern for a turn of the century nightgown that should be very pretty if done right. Also, From "Fashions of the Gilded Age," I found a Grosgrain Wrapper to go over that should be quite nice.
All in all, these may be more work than I have time, but I will start with the Wrapper for the sake of at least having one finished in time!
The Wrapper will be a new type of project for me because in the past, I have ordered sized, pre-printed patterns from one of many different companies that make reproductions. This time, however, I will be creating my own pattern from the miniatures in the book. Essentially, this particular pattern requires that I use a 1/4" or 1/8" gridded plastic sheet, depending on the sizing listed on each pattern piece, to 'blow up' the pattern to real size. Should be an adventure! I'll let you know how it proceeds. At this point, I am waiting on the two grids I ordered from a quilting catalog, so I can't begin on that quite yet.
Happy sewing!
